Energy expert blames government for worsening power crisis

Energy Experts are blaming the worsening power crisis on government’s failure to engage technocrats in the energy sector.

This came up at the launch of the Abeiku Brew-Hammond Memorial Foundation earlier this week.

Delivering the keynote address, immediate past CEO of the VRA and Chairman of the Foundation, Kweku Awotwi said the challenge with Ghana’s energy sector is a combination of factors, some of which can be blamed on the country’s political process and the four year election cycle.

This he said is because political parties are keen on holding on to power and would do anything possible to get those they perceive as opponents out of their way even if they will be useful to the governance process.

His comment triggered the debate about ‘Democracy verses Development.’

“Can we achieve long-term goals with the current democratic cycle? And I think that is the challenge. We have got to find a way and obviously some countries have done it better than others where long-term plans are followed because they are the interest of the people” he stated.

Mr. Awotwi said it’s about time technocrats stepped up their game “since they are the ones who understand the technical and commercial issues better.” Politics he stressed should come at the end, and not the beginning”.

The Foundation is in memory and honour of the late Energy Expert Professor Abeeku Brew-Hammond. It was established by the Kumasi Institute of Technology and Environment (KITE) in partnership with the family of the late Professor Abeeku Brew-Hammond.

Mr. Awotwi tells said initiative is timely especially, in the light of the current power crisis saying, “Abeeku had always been passionate about energy issues.

The foundation’s vision is to engender excellent and accountable energy sector for Ghana through discussions and debate and coming up with actionable recommendations for policy direction.

Citing the negotiations for the procurement of emergency power barges the Executive Director of the Africa Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP) Mohammed Amin Adam reiterated the point that the problems faced by the energy sector is a governance issue

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